Dick Cheney remembered at funeral as having "devotion to America" over party

 After a prayer, Cheney's casket was carried out of the National Cathedral by eight military body bearers  shortly after 1 p.m. while the Battle Hymn of the Republic was sung. 

Rev. Randolph Hollerith, dean of the cathedral, spoke of how much Cheney loved his family. He said Cheney didn't speak of faith often, but said Cheney told his wife he often turned to God for guidance. 

"Death is not the end," the reverend said. "Death is only one more step in the journey."

Liz Cheney said her father knew their bonds as Americans must outweigh party politics. 

"He knew the bonds of party must always yield to the single bond we share as Americans," she said. "For him, a choice between defense of the Constitution and defense of your political party was no choice at all."

She said her father's last words were to tell her mother, Lynne, that he loved her. 

 Liz Cheney noted that "many know the story of his time at Yale," but she said he took issue with anyone who said he "flunked out." 

"He would correct you: No, no I was asked to leave. Twice," she laughed.

She said he took a break from school, spending "several years building power lines across the west." She said she had heard part of those stories before, but it wasn't until she worked with him on his memoirs that she heard the whole story. 

Liz Cheney said that when her father was at the University of Wyoming in the fall of 1963, he heard John F. Kennedy urge students to dedicate their lives to public service. 

"Dick Cheney became a Republican, but he knew that bonds of party must always yield to the single bond we share as Americans," she said. 

Former Rep. Liz Cheney, Cheney's daughter, recalled what it was like for her and her sister, Mary, to grow up with their father. Her father would read every plaque and sign in every place at every battlefield and every museum they ever visited. Eventually, the two daughters began to read the signs, too. 

"He knew you couldn't truly appreciate what it means to live in freedom if you didn't understand the sacrifices of the generations who came before," she said. "And he made sure that his children and grandchildren understood this, too."

Liz Cheney said her dad "thought deeply about what this blessing meant, about the duties it imposed."

"My dad's devotion to America was deep and substantive," she said.

Three of Liz Cheney's children, Elizabeth Perry, Richard Perry, and Grace Perry recalled memories of watching him cooking the Thanksgiving turkey, driving them to college, going to rodeos, sitting in his chair with books piled high, fishing and watching John Wayne movies. Their oldest sister is not in attendance since she is about to have a baby. 

"He always told us how proud he was of us, and we will always try to follow his example," said grandson Philip Richard Perry. 

His granddaughter, Grace Perry, said Cheney didn't believe in GPS navigation. He loved his land, his country, and Wyoming. "He was tough with a kind heart," she said. 

The kids said he became a "rodeo grandpa" after he left office. 

Bush said Cheney stayed out of the spotlight in his last years. 

"In his final years, he was content to go his way," Bush said. 

During a rare public event in 2022, Cheney said the thing he cherished most from his time in politics were the friendships. 

"It's something to be cherished when a man of his caliber has been your colleague and friend," Bush said. 

"We are grateful for his good life, we honor his service, and we pray that somewhere up the trail, we will meet him again."

Bush revealed that during the tough reelection in 2004, Cheney offered to step aside on the ticket. 

"I arrived at the conclusion they do not come any better any better than Dick Cheney," Bush said. 

Bush said that Cheney was "everything a president should expect as a second-in-command," calling him "so focused and so capable." 

Bush honored Cheney's character and demeanor, saying that, "In a profession that attracts talkers, he was a thinker and a listener."

The former president said he wished all Americans could know Cheney the way people of Wyoming towns and cities did, calling him "a gentleman by nature, and a true man of the west." 

But he wasn't a typical politician, Bush said. 

"If any voters came hoping for a kind word and a hug, they'd have to settle for the kind word," Bush said. 

Former President George W. Bush began his eulogy to his vice president by calling him his friend, and honoring Cheney's commitment to his family. 

"His busy and purposeful life they experienced together," Bush said. "In a family so close, you dread the day the circle is broken."

Bush continued that Cheney was "proud of his family" and addressed the family saying, "I hope it helps to know many people in this country share your sense of loss." 

Pete Williams, former NBC News correspondent and former press secretary for Cheney, recalled both their personal relationship and professional memories of Cheney. 

Williams recalled how much Cheney loved fly fishing. If a fly fishing catalogue was open on his desk, one knew to come back at a later time, Williams recalled. 

Williams said Cheney was a good and decent boss. When an outlet was about to publish an article outing Williams as gay in 1991, and Williams told Cheney and offered to resign, Cheney wouldn't hear of it. For several days after the article was published, Cheney called him to check in. 

"Dick Cheney was a good and decent man. He loved his family and his home state," Williams concluded. "His highest aspiration was serving the country. And I'm so lucky and so deeply grateful that I was along for part of that ride." 

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a cardiologist of Cheney's for 27 years, and a friend, spoke first. Cheney suffered his first heart attack at the age of 37, during his first campaign for Congress. 

Reiner said that Cheney's doctors at the time wanted him to quit the campaign trail. 

"They didn't know Dick Cheney. Or more likely, maybe they did know Dick Cheney, and no one had the guts to tell him to quit." 

Reiner joked he doesn't do funerals often. 

"No one wants a doctor who's great at funerals," Reiner said. 

On Sept. 11, 2001, after Cheney had undergone blood work, Reiner got a call that Cheny's potassium was dangerously, potentially lethally, high. 

"But the vice president firmly said 'No, not today,'" Reiner said. 

Reiner said Cheney was always the calmest person in the room, even as he was laying dying in the hospital in July 2010. Cheney later said he thought he would die, and was ready. 

"He never looked over his shoulder. He only looked ahead," Reiner said. 

Cheney ultimately received a heart transplant, a gift that gave him many more years to watch his grandchildren grow up.

After a musical interlude, Cheney's casket was laid at the front of the cathedral for the service. 

The procession for Cheney's flag-draped casket began at 11 a.m., with military members bringing it into the cathedral. 

Cheney's family followed behind the casket. 

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is present for the service, along with Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Elena Kagan and Brett Kavanaugh. Retired Justice Anthony Kennedy is also there, with a cane. 

A number of senators are in attendance for the funeral, including Majority Leader John Thune, Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, John Boozman of Arkansas, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso of Wyoming, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Adam Schiff of California. 

A handful of House members were also in attendance, including Reps. Debbie Dingell of Michigan, Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Bennie Thompson of Mississippi. Raskin, Thompson and Schiff, before he became a senator, served on the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol alongside Cheney's daughter. 

Former President Joe Biden and former first lady Jill Biden have arrived for the service. The Bidens greeted Harris and Pence, with the former first lady sitting next to Harris.

Former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush arrived for the service moments later, with Biden sitting next to Laura Bush. 

Former Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, arrived for the service, with Pence sitting next to Harris. Pence and Harris greeted each other warmly. 

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who is concluding her book tour, has arrived for the service, shaking hands as she sat in her row. 

House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who was one of the 126 House Democrats to vote against the resolution authorizing the 2002 Iraq war, is in attendance. 

Pelosi later found common ground with Cheney after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, and named Liz Cheney as the vice chair of the select committee investigating the attack. 

In a post honoring Cheney after his death, Pelosi noted that they had "strongly disagreed on most policy issues," but she added that "his patriotism was clear when he returned to the House Floor to commemorate the first anniversary of January 6th. We all saw then how proud Vice President Cheney was to see his daughter, Liz, follow in her father's footsteps to serve in the House with courage and integrity."

Former President George W. Bush, who served two terms in the White House alongside Cheney, will deliver a tribute to him at the funeral service.

In a statement following his death, Bush called Cheney a "calm and steady presence in the White House amid great national challenges."

"I counted on him for his honest, forthright counsel, and he never failed to give his best," Bush said. "He held to his convictions and prioritized the freedom and security of the American people."

A senior White House official says President Trump was not invited to the funeral. Mr. Trump did not issue a public statement after Cheney's death.

On Nov. 4, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Mr. Trump was "aware" of Cheney's death and pointed to flags flying at half-staff. Leavitt said she was not aware of any White House involvement in his funeral plans. 

Former President Joe Biden will attend the funeral, his office said. After Cheney's death, Biden issued a statement saying, "Dick Cheney devoted his life to public service — from representing Wyoming in Congress, to serving as Secretary of Defense, and later as Vice President of the United States."

"While we didn't agree on much, he believed, as I do, that family is the beginning, middle, and end," Biden said. 

Former President Bill Clinton had an unavoidable scheduling conflict and will not be able to attend the funeral, according to an aide, who said he is keeping the family in his prayers.

Clinton, a former governor of Arkansas, will be in Little Rock attending an event commemorating the 75th anniversary of the governor's mansion with current Gov. Sarah Sanders and other former governors, including U.S. ambassador Mike Huckabee and Asa Hutchinson. 

Former vice presidents Kamala Harris, Mike Pence, Al Gore and Dan Quayle will be attending the funeral service, according to sources directly familiar with the plans. 

Current Vice President JD Vance was not invited, a senior White House official said.

Liz Cheney, who will speak at the funeral, was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach President Trump after the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and she helped lead the House select committee that investigated the attack. Mr. Trump backed a primary challenger who eventually defeated Liz Cheney. 

Dick Cheney cut an ad for his daughter's failed 2022 reelection campaign backing her position, arguing that in U.S. history "there has never been an individual that was a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump."

In 2024 he said Mr. Trump "can never be trusted with power again. As citizens, we each have a duty to put country above partisanship to defend our Constitution." Both Liz and Dick Cheney revealed that they would cast their ballots for the Democratic presidential nominee, then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Liz Cheney also joined Harris on the campaign trail.

Cheney had set a new tone as a powerful vice president, and on Sept. 11, 2001, and in the aftermath, that power was put to the test. 

"It's hard to explain how important he was, actually, during those Iraq war days," Republican strategist Kevin Sheridan told CBS News. "He was truly central to everything that America did to respond to 9/11. He's obviously received a lot of criticism since for it."

Bush and Cheney made national security a top priority after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and despite that the U.S. had launched a counterattack on al Qaeda and its Taliban allies in Afghanistan, Cheney warned of a larger web of U.S. enemies, urging military action against Iraq and Saddam Hussein.

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction," Cheney told the Veterans of Foreign Wars in 2002.

Baghdad fell only three weeks after the U.S. invasion in 2003. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found, and American forces began a long, deadly occupation.

Dick and Liz Cheney co-wrote the book "Exceptional: Why the World Needs a Powerful America," in 2015. The pair were harshly critical of the Obama administration's national security policies, and Dick Cheney fiercely defended some of the Bush administration's controversial foreign policies, including use of interrogation techniques that critics condemned as torture. 

"First of all, I don't believe we sacrificed our values," he told "Sunday Morning" in 2015. "I think the No. 1 responsibility of senior public officials is to safeguard the nation."

"if you are criticism-free, then you're probably not doing your job," he continued. 

In that interview, Liz Cheny defended his record and his unyielding nature. 

"I know of no one who has been more courageous and dedicated and honorable than my dad, in terms of being willing to say this is absolutely what we have to do, this is the right thing to do, sometimes when nobody else was willing to do it," she said. "I know, for all of us who love you, the gratitude as Americans that we feel, is matched only by our love for him."

Richard Bruce Cheney was born in 1941 in Lincoln, Nebraska, and grew up in Wyoming. He attended Yale but dropped out after two years and finished college at the University of Wyoming. 

Cheney married his high-school sweetheart Lynne, and they had two daughters, Liz and Mary. 

He rose quickly in politics and by age 34 became White House chief of staff for President Gerald Ford, the youngest person ever to hold the job.

In 1978, he ran for Congress in Wyoming and won the first of six terms in the House. In 1989, he was chosen to be secretary of defense in the administration of President George H.W. Bush, where he oversaw the U.S. military victory in the 1991 Gulf War.

He then spent a few years in the private sector as chairman and CEO of the oil services giant Halliburton.

In 2000, Cheney agreed to lead the search for a running mate for Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush — and emerged as the top choice himself, going on to serve two terms as vice president.